I don’t know why, but I have read a lot of books set during WWII and in England. True I like historical fiction, and true there are a lot of these books written (maybe someone in publishing can explain it to me? Likely because they sell. Because I’ll read them). I bet one of you knows why this particular period and place is so enthralling to this reader. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Romance
Everyone Brave is Forgiven: I have read a lot of books about the Blitz.
Filed under British literature, Fiction, Historical Fiction
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: If You’re Not Sure What to Choose for Book Club, Read This.
I fell behind on posting. I’m catching up, but I knew I’d read at least three things that I needed to post about, and I tried to remember the book I was forgetting. I eventually came to it – Bryn Greenwood’s All the Ugly and Wonderful Things – and then bam! the whole novel was back with me. So it was at once forgettable (in that the story obviously didn’t linger in my mind), but wholly memorable (in that once triggered I could recall the whole thing). Continue reading
Filed under Book Club, Fiction, Prize Winner
Exit West: This futuristic fairy tale will make you sad. And then you’ll forget it. Because feelings are for suckers.
Mohsin Hamid had an idea: a future where people could travel by walking through a door. And then he tried to write a novel – Exit West – around this idea with varying degrees of success. Continue reading
Filed under Book I'll Forget I Read, Fiction
Every Thing, Every Thing: Making Reading Great Again (in a novel that is terrible)
There really must be something about young adults and being trapped in the house. Maybe it’s about imagining things that are inaccessible? Or butting up against societal constraints on self and expression? Or probably in response to years of being grounded? Whatever the case this is the third YA novel I’ve read with the protagonist trapped in the house: this time it’s not agoraphobia, but instead SCID – an auto-immune disease that makes our protagonist, Madeline, a ‘bubble girl’ who has to live her life in the bubble of her house. Continue reading
Filed under Bestseller, Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Literary Vice 